Seattle is one of many locations hiring career city carriers directly off the street, reports Don Cheney, APWU PSAL 298. The USPS has quietly posted many career, mostly Part-Time Flexible (PTF), city carrier, rural carrier, custodian, and clerk jobs at https://about.usps.com/careers.
Part-time, career job postings include cities across the country, including Boston, Indianapolis, Denver, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Kansas City. A screenshot of some of these listings can be found in this PDF file. Click here (PDF) for additional Seattle-area job postings information.
The PTF career opportunities, with career federal benefits that full-time employees enjoy, are an attractive step-up from the reduced benefit CCA (City Carrier Assistant) and PSE (Postal Support Employees) positions.
However, so far, the Postal Service and national postal labor unions have said little about the new job opportunities, with many postings starting only recently in the second half of June 2022.
Many in the postal community consider the CCA program (and similar programs in other crafts) to be a long-term failure, with a high turnover rate that has contributed to Postal Service short staffing in many areas of the country. Despite the known problems, the CCA-type programs have inexplicably continued onward in various recent USPS Postal Labor union contracts.
As for current CCAs, Cheney also reports that CCAs in these cities will be converted to PTF.
Fortunately, with the new career postings, it appears the Postal Service is coming to terms with the challenging job market. But will the new career opportunities go nationwide? We shall see.